Rainman goes Bio-Buckets

[Rainman]

Here is my first attempt at the buckets and I was really impressed with my results on this run given all the screw ups I created being impatient. I have to give all of the love to Blazeone and Big Toke, as I simply read their threads and customized their info for my own. So to both of these guys I say thank you and Jah bless!!This was a 6 bucket room that was thrown together after I got back from Costa Rica. I rushed the design and build to get the ladies going in time to finish before the summer heat officially took over. These are their stories.......

OK first the room and setup:


Open space between the wall and the dryer in the garage.



Platform for the buckets



Outside of prepped bucket



Inside of buckets with the large airstone. I recomend these to anyone thinking of doing any buckets system.


Hydroton Pebs gettin cleaed off




Need a smoke break!!! be back in a few!

 

[Rainman]

OK back at it!! This is the DIY aero-cloner used to move things right a long. Built from scratch for about $20!! Works great with no leaks. Just wish i had used a smaller tub as this one is a little too big for me. Hey next time!



Seedlings already going strong!

Inside the tub to show the misters





Small net pots for the cloner

 

[Rainman]

OK!! By this point the girls are goin good and the roots are starting to take off. At this time i am finishing up the details of the room and how things are gonna fit best. Questions?? Comments?? All are welcome!





The buckets are getting fitted to the platform and the room to optimize the light. Using a 1K HPS Sunsystem w/ EYE Hortilux bulb air cooled and running from the room to a carbon scrubber on top. Pics soon.

 

[vhGhost]

Rainman .. don't stop posting dude .. great progress, biobuckets are a great way to grow

 

[Rainman]

Thanks VH!! I love the system for sure!

 

[Rainman]

OK - My res. was just one I had laying around so it got the nomination. I didn't check my ratios for what size the res should be and just kinda threw it in hoping it would be large enough. Used a elbo to turn the flow downward towards the res from the return piping. Not quite a foot from the water but enough to give some aeration from the drop. i also added a large blue airstone to the res to make up for the lack of drop(Bigtoke's recommendation on the drop).






Here is the room from the outside. My lady was not happy about this happening in her clean house so the garage was the easiest way to go.

 

[Rainman]

Yes! Yes! The girls haved move to their new home and seem to be rather happy about the whole thing!




Still have a few ladies in the cloner just in case their are some sausages who decide to show up later on!



Just a few weeks later and a little stress never hurt nobody!

 

[Rainman]

Almost forgot!! I always run CO2 in my rooms so this one got the same.
nothing special just a tank and a regulator hooked to my timer.


The roots in my system are blasting away!! A little dark due to the oraganic nutrient and molasses but, very healthy and no smell at all(dead giveaway for rootrot!) Air stone really put out the bubbles with my air pump.








And the pump.

 

[Rainman]

Since it is so hot here during the Spring and Summer months I had to make sure there was no aeration or water temp issues with the system. I may have overdone it with the water/air pumps but it helped me sleep better thats for sure! It also allows me to increase bucket #s if I wanted to later. Looks good from here.




And the res.

 

[Rainman]

Gettin there!



Twisten!



And a turnin!!

 

[Rainman]

Lets jump ahead a little! I could never read whole books either!!

Gettin plump!!


more!!!


and more!!!


And last is the Costa Rican Sativa! i seriously underestimated the amount of room she was gonna need! She basically took over!! Like a vine. She has been moved to the great outdoors to do her thing proper like with nature!

 

[Rainman]

Not a lot of responses but we keep doin our thing regardless!!! Here we are about half way through the cycle and I have taken down all the males. Was left with the Heri. clone and 3 ladies from seed. 1 Affy and 2 unknowns.

Close up


From above

 

[raygun]

Lookin good rainman!
Although I don't know if you can clasically call those bio-buckets but they do look like they are doing the job right! Looks like a hybrid recirc/bio-bucket system. I ran a mini version of the bio-buckets (3gal buckets in a closet) check my signature link. Never had air stones in my buckets and that was part of the bio-bucket design was to eliminate that equipment need. I would recomend getting rid of the hydroton and going with the lava rock. It will help anchor the roots better and give more surface area for benifitial bacteria to grow. But looks like it is working just fine for you now.

I also went with a bottom delivery for the incoming water rather than the top like big-toke does and found that it works great for me but watch out if your res wil not hold the total water volume in your buckets. You could end up flooding your grow space if the pump ever fails and you do not have a one way valve in place between your pump and buckets.

What size water pump are you using?

Over all looks like you are on it and they look happy! Keep up the good work!
safe growing
~raygun~

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Hey rainman. Looking great bro! I take it this is retrospective grow or are you still going?

 

[Rainman]

Raygun and WFF - Thanks for stoppin by! nice to see familiar faces.

Ray, I guess it is what it is then as far as the name goes. Not really sure why I started callin it that to begin with? I needed the stones because of my concern with water temps and root rot. The pump is a 600GPH Eco-line. It is a little overkill but the name of the game was to buy pieces I could upgrade with later on(wasn't sure I was gonna keep the system). I have the bottom delivery as well and prefer it. Since it was done in my garage I was not that concerned with overflows. The rocks are another story! Lost one girl to a bad case of RR and had to flush the entire system quickly to make sure it hadn't screwed up everything! Lava rocks will def be the next purchase.

WFF - This was done a couple weeks ago so I am done for the summer except for a few girls outside. I got that Costa Rican at a buddy's house and I have a guerrilla grow with a couple of GDP, Erkles, and Sour D IBL's doin their thing but im done with indoors-until I put together my system like yours in a few months!!!Cant wait!!

Thanks for stopping by fellas!!

 

[raygun]

With that root rot you may want to check the flow volume of your buckets. I had one that for what ever reason the flow was restricted and started to see some negative effects. I have valves on each bucket to regulate that flow. If you pull out all your plants and empty the buckets then turn the pump on and make sure that all the buckets fill up equally.

Hope that helps.

 

[Rainman]

Where was I? Oh! So here we go with a close up of the Heri. She is puttin on the most crystals by far of any of the ladies.



At this point the room is still full and all six buckets are going.



Doesn't take long before the Affy's start to crystal up like the Herijuana did!



RG - My flow was fine as I was getting 636GPH to the buckets. I had no clogs or flow issues at all and I checked for equal flow during the setup to make sure everything was even.. My water temps went through the roof when we had a stretch of 100 plus days during the grow. that is what I am guessing cause that one to go over the deep end. Plus, I was including molasses with the feeding and that was another no no I think during the hot days. Anyways it worked out and I got everything under control in time. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[MrFista]

I was going to suggest you drop the molasses.

It is great for beneficial bacteria but they build up fast because of it and attach to any surface - ie: your roots.

You could bubble some outside of the grow with some very light nutes (ie: handful of worm castings) first let it coagulate in there and then strain it out, might help, probably better without it.

Organic hydro is tricky with DWC I've played with it for years. Ebb and flow is far more forgiving for temperatures.

Some michorhizal fungi would help, as would some lactic acid bacteria.

 

[LifeCycle]

nice job building those buckets i know they can be a pain in the arse

 

[Rainman]

MF - Yeah I dropped the molasses after that and it really created some issues. Prolly best not used every change like I did either. I was tryin to go straight organic but I think you are right about not being the best for this system. Thinkin just straight hydro next run. Ebb and flow def on the menu with some GDP trees. Thanks for the info!

LC - Nice to have you in the lounge. I really liked the buckets and had fun with these. i got all my info from the tutorials of Blazeone and Bigtoke and just went for it. I would recommend this setup to anyone who wanted to get into hydro cheap and with great results. I would recommend going straight hydro instead of organic like I did though way easier to work with. I had no leaks and my setup was cheap to get off the ground. What are you growin or growin with. I think im goin ebb and flow buckets next I think. Thanks for stoppin by. Peace!

Lost a girl to RR by this point and the Costa R. sat is gone to the great outdoors




Top of the Heri.